Washboard



(No Model) A. POEHLMAN.

WASHBOARD.

No. 585,925. Patented July 6. 1897.

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llNiTEn STATES ATENT OFFICE.

ANNA POEHLMAN, OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA.

WASHBOARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 585,925, dated July 6, 1897.

Application filed February 15, 189']. Serial No. 623,504. (No model.)

To aZZ 111720111 it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ANNA POEHLMAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of South Bend, in the county of St. Joseph and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in WVashboards, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a washboard with a rub-surface having a double reversed curve connecting upper and lower flat corrugated surfaces over which the clothes may be rubbed to cleanse them.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate my invention, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a washboard of the simplest form, illustrating my invention; Fig. 2, a central longitudinal section of the form shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a side elevation showing the inner face of one of the side pieces of the frame, and Fig. 4 is a section similar to Fig. 2 of the upper and lower portions of a washboard upon an enlarged scale.

The figures of the drawings show my invention in its simplest and least expensive form, wherein the side pieces 1 of the frame are mortise-joined to the ends of a top crosspiece 2, and are connected below the zinc rub-surface 3 and back board 4 thereof by a bottom cross-bar 5 and also by half-round back strips 6 and '7, respectively near the upper and lower ends of the back board, which hold the latter securely against the rubbing action thereon and also strengthen the connection between the side pieces of the frame. The back board 4 and the rub-surface 3 are correspondingly formed with a straight or flat upper end 3 lower end 3 and with an intermediate reverse-curved middle section 3, which latter provides an improved form of rubbingsurface by presenting at the upper section of the reverse curve a trough which will retain the suds-water and at the lower section of said reverse curve a rounded ridge over which the clothes may be more effectively rubbed than upon a flat surface.

The upper end of the back board 4 is depressed to provide a soap-recess 8 to extend completely across the board, and the lower end of said recess is provided with a retaining-strip 9, which extends across from one side piece to the other and is held a suitable distance from the zinc rub surface or plate 3 to allow the soap-water of said recess to flow freely under said strip down upon the corrugated rubbing-surface of the zinc, thus pro viding an even and constant supply of soap or a supply dependent upon the amount of water carried into the soap-recess. Thebottom cross-bar 5 and the back strips 6 and 7 are made cylindrical or of cylindrical segments which are readily fitted into corresponding mortises easily bored into the side pieces of the frame, and the back board 4 is pressed into the required shape and secured at its side edges in mortise-grooves in the inner faces of the side pieces 1 of the washboard. The zinc rub-surface may extend from the top to the bottom of the face of the back board and is turned over the ends thereof to be held between the ends of the back board and the adjacent ends of the cross-pieces.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent A washboard comprising side pieces and a rub-surface having a fiat section at the upper and lower ends thereof, and an intermediate reverse-curved section, substantially as described. I.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ANNA POEHLMAN.

WVitnesses:

B. KRUEPER, O. H. ZABELER. 

